NY Giants sign Tommy DeVito to active roster, in line to be Daniel Jones' backup Sunday

EAST RUTHERFORD - Tommy DeVito's journey as an NFL long shot to his hometown team has reached a significant milestone, one that began as a childhood dream with remarkable improbability to be realized.

The quarterback from New Jersey who starred at Don Bosco in high school and grew up in the shadow of MetLife Stadium, winning a State championship there, is signing with the New York Giants on their active roster, his agent Sean Stellato confirmed to NorthJersey.com on Tuesday.

Just two days after the undrafted rookie made his professional debut for the Giants in their 13-10 overtime loss to the Jets, DeVito has taken yet another huge leap in his career. He has been with the Giants since the spring, but spent the first two months of the regular season on the practice squad.

Now DeVito could be in line to be Daniel Jones' backup when the Giants play the Raiders in Las Vegas on Sunday. They also signed veteran Matt Barkley to the practice squad. Barkley, 33, spent time with Brian Daboll in Buffalo and worked out for the Giants shortly after Jones was injured.

The Giants (2-6) now have options at QB because of how the roster is structured. Matt Barkley has three practice squad elevations available. So as soon as Barkley gets up to speed (and if he earns QB2), DeVito can be the emergency QB3 on game day - he would not count against the roster limits - because he is on the active roster.

With Jones sidelined due to his neck injury, DeVito was elevated for three consecutive weeks to serve as Tyrod Taylor's backup. He did not play in the first two games, but when Taylor was knocked out of Sunday's game against the Jets with a rib cage injury, DeVito was called upon to take over the offense.

"Wish it would’ve ended better to fulfill those emotions, but the little kid in me is smiling right now that I got to play in an NFL game and really in a meaningful NFL game," DeVito said Sunday. "I just wish the outcome would’ve been different."

Jones was cleared to return to action by doctors Sunday after missing three games with a neck injury suffered in the Giants' loss to the Dolphins in Miami. He told Kay Adams during his weekly appearance on the "Up and Adams Show" that the expectation is he will start against the Raiders on Sunday.

Daniel Jones: 'I'm ready to go'

"I'm cleared. I'm ready to go," Jones said. "Barring any setbacks this week, I'll be ready to go" in Las Vegas.

DeVito scored the first touchdown of his career in the third quarter on a 6-yard run, putting the Giants ahead, 10-7, a lead they held until the final play of regulation when the Jets' Greg Zuerlein capped a miraculous 24-second comeback with a game-tying field goal as time expired.

The Giants' passing game was essentially non-existent thanks to a combination of inclement weather and a conservative game plan from Brian Daboll and the offensive coaches who believed keeping the ball on the ground with Saquon Barkley against the Jets' dominant pass defense was the best path to victory.

They fell 24 seconds short.

Taylor was taken from the stadium to Hackensack University Medical Center on Sunday for further testing and observation for his rib injury. He stayed there overnight and was discharged from the hospital Monday afternoon. There is no word yet how much time Taylor will miss in his recovery from a painful injury.

DeVito signed with the Giants as an undrafted rookie quarterback with a defined role, one that was made clear to him early on by offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and Shea Tierney, his position coach. The Giants were not bringing DeVito in because they wanted him to fall in line behind Jones and Taylor, the incumbent starter to whom the franchise just gave a $160 million contract and the 12-year veteran with 53 career starts under his belt.

Fitting in was a must for DeVito, of course, but he wasn't here just to serve as the backup's backup, and that was an integral part of the mission statement hammered home from Day 1.

"Coach Shea and Coach Kaf sat me down, explained to me the standard of what it was to be a quarterback here," DeVito told NorthJersey.com this summer. "Not just to take the low hanging fruit and want to be at the bottom, be happy just being here. I want to be the best I could be - obviously Daniel's Daniel, and Tyrod's been in the league for a bunch of years, he's very established. So, the situation I'm in, I needed to understand that I was learning as well as competing. Everybody's competing, even if I'm not competing with them on every throw. They needed me to be the best quarterback I could be for the New York Giants, and that was my goal."

Even DeVito could not imagine that, before Halloween, he'd be quarterbacking the Giants in the second half of a crucial game against the Jets. His time was supposed to be the preseason Snoopy Bowl, not the real thing.

The NFL moves fast, though, and now DeVito is officially on the 53-man roster with a much larger role than anyone could have anticipated - DeVito included.

'Cool, calm, collected'

Saquon Barkley had praise after the game for how DeVito handled the challenging assignment.

"He was cool, calm, collected," Saquon Barkley said. "It’s a tough defense [the Jets] to go against for your first time. He was able to get in the end zone. He’s a local kid, probably felt great for him. Just disappointed we couldn’t get the win for him."

In high school, DeVito led Don Bosco to a Non-Public, Group 4 title as a junior and the offense was tailored around his skill set, giving him more freedom at the line of scrimmage. He threw for 3,238 yards and 33 touchdowns with 11 interceptions over two seasons. He played his college ball at Syracuse and Illinois.

DeVito, 25, had agreed to a deal with the Giants that included a $10,000 signing bonus and $10,000 base salary guarantee as an undrafted free agent. That was obviously in a different stratosphere than the lucrative deal Jones signed with the Giants back in March and a far cry from the $5.450 million Taylor will earn this season.

As a member of the active roster, DeVito will earn a prorated salary of roughly $44,000 per week for every game he is on the team. The NFL's rookie minimum salary is $750,000 for a full 17-game season, and the Giants have nine regular season games remaining.

Matt Barkley made the most sense to join the Giants. And there are no guarantees that DeVito will stay on the active roster for the rest of the season. It's up to him to prove he deserves to stay, just as he did to make it to this point this quickly.

"I saw growth. I saw a quarterback that has developed, and I just saw the leadership he had, coming up to us after that big score that we needed to come out of the half," Giants rookie center John Michael Schmitz said of DeVito. "I just saw him kind of take control. So, yeah, I was proud of him."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NY Giants sign Tommy DeVito to roster, could back up Daniel Jones